Is it normal to see black powder on my toner cartridge & drum for my Brother HL-2170w laser printer?

Question

I opened my printer to change the drum unit and I noticed a lot of black powder on top of the toner and the drum unit.

• Is this normal?
• Does this mean the drum unit/toner is bad?
• Should I just change both of them or can I just change one?
• If I change one, say just the toner, but the drum unit is bad - will it damage the new toner cartridge - and vice versa?

I cleaned the dust powder (which I guess is toner) off, but the printer still prints dirty.

Thanks.

Edit 1: All of this stems from this question - Can a generic drum unit cause a Brother HL-2170w Laser B&W printer print dirty?

Solution

Toner dust is gonna happen, so don't worry too much.

However, if you start getting unfused toner on your output paper, it could be a sign of a bad fuser roller and you may need to replace it.

Comments

[user1729603]

I updated the question to include a link to another question I asked that has an image of an output from my printer. So, the bad fuser roller...is that in the drum unit? I have a new drum unit, I am wondering if I should use it with the existing toner or will that possibly damage it? Am I better off just changing both?

[Brian Adkins]

Here's a great site: printertechs.com/tech/print-defects/print-defects-index.php. Often, a bad fuser results in the print looking ok until you touch it and then it smears... Random toner on the page that doesn't rub off seems more like a toner cartridge.